Mindfulness, Movement, and Exercise

Jenn Pilotti
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Discussions on mindfulness, movement, and exercise jennpilotti.substack.com

  1. Your spine already knows what to do

    2d ago

    Your spine already knows what to do

    The third and final exercise from Spinal Intelligence is deceptively simple: move from hands and knees to seated, and pay attention to what your spine is doing along the way. That’s it. No special equipment, no particular shape to achieve. What makes it interesting is the middle part — where you get to try rounding your back through the transition, then arching it, then finding what feels easiest. Not to judge which one is “correct,” but to notice. Is one more fluid? More awkward? Does one feel like it requires more effort? This kind of exploration is at the heart of what Spinal Intelligence is about. Your spine isn’t a column that needs to be held in the right position. It’s a responsive system that’s constantly taking in information and adapting. When you give it variations to work with — instead of a single instruction to follow — you start to develop a more nuanced relationship with how it actually moves. The seated moment at the end, where you simply sense where your spine is in relation to your pelvis, matters more than it might look. That’s the practice: move, then feel. Not just move and move and move. If these three exercises have been useful, the book goes much deeper — both the exercises themselves and the reasoning behind why this approach to movement works. You can find Spinal Intelligence at the link here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennpilotti.substack.com/subscribe

    2 min
  2. The Physics of the Deadlift (And Why Your Hands Matter More Than You Think)

    5d ago

    The Physics of the Deadlift (And Why Your Hands Matter More Than You Think)

    There’s a word that gets thrown around a lot in lifting: leverage. People say it constantly, but the way it’s used often doesn’t match what’s actually happening mechanically. So let’s slow it down. When you pick something heavy up off the floor, you have three variables in play: your load (the bar), your pivot point (your hips and knees), and your effort (the posterior chain doing the work). The lever arm — the thing that determines how hard or easy the lift feels — is your torso. Not your hands. Your hands aren’t where your leverage lives. But here’s the part that doesn’t get talked about enough: grip still matters enormously, just not for the reason most people think. The way you take hold of the bar determines how well you’re anchored — to the bar, and to yourself. A grip that pulls the bar in toward you does two things at once: it moves the load closer to your pivot point (making it mechanically lighter) and it creates a line of sensory feedback that travels all the way up through your arms and into your back. That feedback is what allows your posterior chain to actually engage in the movement rather than just endure it. This is why I re-grip every single rep. Not for strength. For reset. Each time my hands meet the bar again, I get a fresh read on where I am — and that information changes how I move. Physics is clarifying. Once you understand what’s actually creating leverage in a lift, you stop trying to solve the wrong problem. You stop white-knuckling the bar hoping that’ll help, and you start paying attention to your torso position and hip angle — which is where the movement actually lives. If you want to go deeper into how the nervous system and biomechanics work together in movement — including why sensation matters as much as mechanics — that’s exactly what Spinal Intelligence is built around. Available now at jennpilotti.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennpilotti.substack.com/subscribe

    5 min
  3. Your hands can only load what your spine allows

    May 25

    Your hands can only load what your spine allows

    Most people think of hand balancing — or even just pressing into a surface — as a hand and shoulder problem. It isn’t. It’s a spine problem. This two-minute wall drill will show you what I mean. You’ll start with your pinky finger edges against the wall, ribs dropped toward the floor, and then slowly draw your ribs up toward the ceiling. As you do, notice when your hands start to take weight. That moment — when the load arrives in your palms — is entirely determined by what your spine is doing, not by how hard you’re gripping or how much you’re trying. It’s a small thing to feel, and then you can’t unfeel it. This is useful if you sit at a desk for long hours and have lost a sense of what your thoracic spine is actually doing. It’s equally useful if you do any kind of hand balancing, yoga, or pressing work, and you’ve been trying to solve a hand or wrist problem that keeps not getting solved. The drill is in the video below. All you need is a wall. This is one thread in a much larger idea I explore in Spinal Intelligence — the book is out now, and you can find it on Amazon or at jennpilotti.com. Questions or observations after you try it? Drop them in the comments — I read everything. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennpilotti.substack.com/subscribe

    2 min
  4. Mindfulness, Movement, and Exercise: Is Pilates Strength Training? Let the thing be the thing.

    May 17

    Mindfulness, Movement, and Exercise: Is Pilates Strength Training? Let the thing be the thing.

    A listener question about how to explain Pilates to students who ask whether it “counts” as strength training sparked this short but clarifying episode. The answer? No — and that’s actually great news. Jenn breaks down why Pilates and yoga don’t need to be strength training to be valuable, why strength training doesn’t need to borrow from Pilates to be complete, and how these practices genuinely complement each other when we stop asking each one to be everything. If you’ve ever felt pressure to justify your movement practice by the metrics of another, this one’s for you. Plus, a quick note on her new book, Spinal Intelligence, which is officially out now.Get the book here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennpilotti.substack.com/subscribe

    6 min
  5. Your Spine Controls Your Hands (A Wall Exercise That Makes This Obvious)

    May 12

    Your Spine Controls Your Hands (A Wall Exercise That Makes This Obvious)

    Most people think of their hands and their spine as separate things. This two-minute wall drill makes the connection undeniable — you’ll feel exactly when your hands start to take weight, and why it has almost nothing to do with your hands. All you need is a wall. Start with your pinky finger edges against the wall, feet stepped back, and let your ribs drop toward the floor. Then slowly lift your ribs toward the ceiling — and notice what happens to your hands. They flip. They load. The pressure arrives not because you pushed, but because your spine moved. This is useful for anyone who sits at a desk for long stretches (which is most of us), and it’s particularly clarifying if you do any kind of hand balancing, yoga, or pressing work. The question of when the hand is actually bearing weight is one people struggle with across a lot of movement contexts — and the answer lives in the spine, not the hand. This drill is one small piece of what I explore in Spinal Intelligence, my new book — available now on Amazon and at jennpilotti.com. Try it and let me know what you notice in the comments. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennpilotti.substack.com/subscribe

    2 min
  6. The posture advice you've been given is probably wrong

    Apr 29

    The posture advice you've been given is probably wrong

    Most of what we’ve been told about “good” and “bad” posture doesn’t reflect how the body actually works. Your spine is constantly adjusting based on your feet, your shoulders, what you’re carrying. Posture is transitory, not fixed. This video walks you through exactly how that works, with demos you can try right now. These ideas come directly from my new book, Spinal Intelligence — link here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennpilotti.substack.com/subscribe

    6 min
  7. Beyond the Back Squat: Three Ways to Load a Squat That Feel Better in Your Body

    Apr 18

    Beyond the Back Squat: Three Ways to Load a Squat That Feel Better in Your Body

    There’s a piece of squat history I find genuinely interesting, and it changes how you think about the whole exercise. The back squat — the version most people mean when they say “squats” — was essentially invented by a man who loaded the bar in the bottom position. He’d get under it from below, set himself, and stand up. The movement began from the floor. That’s very different from what we do now: stand under a racked bar, unrack it onto your back, and then descend into the squat. The setup has been reversed. And setup dictates everything — how you sense the load, what your body does with it, how the whole thing feels. This isn’t an argument against back squatting. It’s an argument for noticing that the back squat isn’t the only way to squat under load, and that for many bodies, it isn’t even the best one. Here are three alternatives I use regularly — two with a barbell, one with a sandbag — along with a detail about the feet that makes all of them work better. The Zercher Squat You take the bar in the crook of your elbows rather than across your back. I like to get into it from the bottom: squat down, rest the bar on your thighs, slide your elbows underneath, and stand up. Come back down the same way. Because the load is in front of and below your center of gravity, your body recruits differently. Your back isn’t working to resist forward pull — it’s working with the weight. Most people find it surprisingly comfortable once they stop anticipating discomfort. The Sandbag Front Squat Take the bag from the floor in a position that’s still basically a Zercher — held at the chest, elbows under. Same mechanics, different texture. The sandbag shifts slightly as you move, which asks your stabilizers to keep responding rather than bracing once and holding. The Single-Shoulder Sandbag Squat Same setup from the floor, but you take the bag to one shoulder. The asymmetrical load changes what your spine and hips have to do — in a useful way. It’s closer to how you’d actually carry something heavy in real life. The feet note that changes everything Before you squat down or stand up: sprawl the balls of your feet — not your toes, the balls — and set your ankles. This is a small action that has a large effect. It changes what you’re pushing from. Once I started cueing this, everything else in the movement organized itself better. If your goal is to add numbers to a back squat, these aren’t substitutes. But if your goal is to feel strong and move well in your body — they might actually serve you better. Give one a try and notice what’s different. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennpilotti.substack.com/subscribe

    4 min
  8. A 5-Minute Nervous System Reset (Follow Along — No Equipment)

    Apr 6

    A 5-Minute Nervous System Reset (Follow Along — No Equipment)

    When you’re feeling scattered, tense, or just a little disconnected from your body, the answer isn’t always more effort. Sometimes it’s less — and a different kind of attention. This is a short guided practice you can do anywhere, standing or seated, without any equipment. In about five minutes, we move through heel lifts with sensory awareness, foot circles, a bit of skin-rubbing (which sounds odd and works surprisingly well), a ragdoll release through the shoulders, some figure-eight eye tracking, and a few slow breaths with an image that actually helps you exhale more fully. None of it is dramatic. All of it is doing something specific — waking up proprioception, down-regulating the nervous system, and helping you feel a little more at home in your body. Give yourself the five minutes. Notice how you feel after. Practices like this are at the heart of my upcoming book, Spinal Intelligence. More on that soon. If you found this useful, share it with someone who spends too much time in their head and not enough in their body. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennpilotti.substack.com/subscribe

    7 min
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